700nm thick transparent display created on a soap bubble

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The big screen TVs manufacturers are shipping today have become extremely thin, with some even managing a single-digit millimeter thickness. But they all pale in comparison to a new transparent display that has been developed at the University of Tokyo.

Researcher Yoichi Ochiai and his team have managed to create a working display on a special type of soap bubble that is just 700nm thick. As soap bubbles consist of a membrane, they can both let light through and display color. Ochiai managed to control the output of the membrane by hitting it with ultrasonic sound waves from a speaker.

The end result is a display that can output 2D and 3D images, but can also change the texture of the image due to the varying vibrations of the sound hitting the surface. And when several are used together, they can even output holographic images.

The soap bubbles used are still mostly made of soap, but are much stronger than your typical bath time bubbles due to the chemical mixture used to form the liquid. In fact, they are so strong you can break the surface with an object and the bubble won’t burst.

As you can see from watching the video above, these tiny displays won’t challenge the giant LCD TVs for space on your wall any time soon. However, they do offer something new, notably a transparent display that makes objects looks as though they are floating in mid air. They also aren’t limited to being circular. You can form one of these bubble screens within any shape.